Soccer Dad

On palin's bailin'

Roger Simon describes how Palin defied the conventional political wisdom. Victor Davis Hanson is even more brutal as he highlights how Palin offends her betters:

Smart women do not get pregnant when it is inconvenient, especially when it interferes with one's cursus honorum. Palin foolishly had a baby as governor, and waddled around with it the entire time-with other snotty kids in tow (just like those trashy folk at the mall who pile out of the Tahoe, in the way just as you are parking your Volvo)! And worse, in the age of sonograms and abortion, she delivered a mentally-challenged child. And worse still, the mom of five encouraged her daughter to deliver an out-of-wedlock child. (Is it in Oklahoma or Arkansas where moms and daughters have children about the same time?) And which is worse, to have a kid at 17 or one after 40? And worse, worse yet, she does not support abortion! Here is Hell in Sarah Palin's world: I am up for a promotion at CNN, foolishly become pregnant at 42, and discover "it" has chromosomal "issues". Am I supposed to deliver this thing? I don't think so (nor would my daughter, should she become pregnant by her boyfriend the summer before starting off at Vassar [all that SAT camp for nothing?]).

Taranto shows how Palin was treated differently from Biden and Meryl shows how she was treated differently from Obama.

But there's a different contrast between the soon-to-be former Governor and the current President that I'd like to draw, The definitive account of Palin's career prior to her nomination as Vice President was compiled by Baseball Crank. Somewhere along the way Palin was appointed to Alaska Oil and Gas Preservation Commission. When she found that her own party wasn't dealing honestly with the state, she resigned. Baseball Crank recounts:

Think about that again. Palin wasn't independently wealthy, although her family is now well off; her husband made good money as a commercial fisherman and working in the oil fields, but with four children to raise, their status as a two-income family was undoubtedly financially important to them. Yet she was walking away from a plum job with a six-figure salary that had given her a more than 60% pay raise from her job as Mayor. Palin herself had worked only in politics since leaving her sportscasting job some 16 years earlier, and by picking up a crusade against the state's most powerful political figures, she stood an extremely good chance of burying her promising political future for good. But she was willing to walk away from all of that at age 40 to do the right thing.

Furthermore, as John Ziegler points out, the MSM is largely ignorant of this aspect of her career:

For instance, how in the world can anyone fully understand why Palin took this action unless they know this is not the first time she's done something like this? How many people are aware that in 2004 (almost exactly the same amount of time before her election as Governor as there is now before the 2012 primaries) Palin put her political career in jeopardy and resigned out of principle from a cushy government job as the chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission? My guess is very, very few.

I'm sure most members of the news media know nothing about this basic and relevant fact from Palin's background because I've done my own "poll." Every time a media inquiry to discuss Palin's resignation came my way I made a point of asking the reporter if they knew about this episode. So far I have yet to find even one who had a clue, and this sample includes a writer from The New York Times!!

In contrast what do we know about our President's ethics? Well we know that he dealt with a shady developer while the developer was known to be under investigation. We also know that he was quite involved with the now-disgraced governor of Illinois. And we know that he used his office to secure his wife a job.

In 2004 the Washington Post ran a number of editorials excoriating the Swift Boat Veterans for their attacks on John Kerry. But when even more outrageous attacks have been directed at Palin over the past year, the Post has been silent. While the Post often protests about the need for accountability in government, it endorsed the candidate who was much too close to the ethically challenged and protested that Palin was too inexperienced for the job. (Not that the Post was alone in this.) Now I think we know why the Post respected Obama so much, it appreciates one's ability to leverage his position for financial gain. Of course the Post's behavior (and that of other stalwarts of the MSM) serves to reinforce the impression that they associate governance with the ability to sue one's position to enhance one's own prospects. The idea that even the ordinary ought to have an opportunity to govern, seems lost on them.